What a disaster. And no one - not even the most optimistic Tory -saw it coming. I guess the general public were a bit embarrassed to admit they were going to vote Tory (unlike the Scots who proudly told everyone that Labour were over as the fever of nationalism took hold).

I recall a year or so ago Labour almost losing a safe Manchester seat to UKIP. Obviously, the white working class in the north are so alienated from Labour that they have helped the Tories get elected in certain seats - Ed Balls, always a liability to Labour, gone. That is a real coup. Will the protest vote stay with UKIP now Farrage has lost? Galloway gone but not to a Tory. He ran an awful, divisive, nasty name calling one issue campaign so goodbye to that idiot. Labour ran an overall positive - if bland - campaign that did not connect. What will they reshape as? Perhaps out of power for as long as the Thatcher-Major years.

That the Tories employed the US Republican strategy of playing on voter fear (of the SNP) is the saddest part of this result. A very divided, embittered United Kingdom the result. And for those of us not well off things are going to get even tougher.

electoral reform required, when will the sadly increasingly puny labour party realise this, and join common cause with other left and left-centre forces? The tory party has had disproportionate power for so long now. Another dispiriting election result and a country's politics and policies skewed and skewered

the Green vote will probably ensure that Labour is kept out, which infuriates me.

I'm infuriated too that 3187 Green Party voters failed to grasp the simple principle of tactical voting and let the Brighton Kemptown Tory in with a majority of less than 700. Labour's Nancy Platts would have been a great MP for the area.

This has been the most depressing general election result since Thatcher was re-elected in the 1980s. Cameron's 'sweetest victory' speech was as nauseating as Osborne's claim that the Tories have a mandate for their policies of austerity and inequality. There remains an anti-Tory majority in the UK, which must be mobilised over the next five years.

Great to see Caroline Lucas re-elected in Brighton Pavilion and Labour's Peter Kyle victorious in Hove (the only Labour MP south of London?). Also great to see the vile Tory MP Esther McVey kicked out of her Wirrel constituency.

I'm struggling to find reasons why last night's grim result happend, particularly as Ed and Labour really good on the mansion tax to fund the NHS, bedroom tax and repealing the Tory tax cut for millionaires. Who are these Tory voters who approve of an Old Etonian elite imposing more austerity on the poor? I never meet them in real life.

the Green vote will probably ensure that Labour is kept out, which infuriates me.

I'm infuriated too that 3187 Green Party voters failed to grasp the simple principle of tactical voting and let the Brighton Kemptown Tory in with a majority of less than 700. Labour's Nancy Platts would have been a great MP for the area.

I have been incandescently furious about this since the result was announced. My utter contempt for everything Green has never been utter-er.

Garth Cartwright wrote: And no one - not even the most optimistic Tory -saw it coming. I guess the general public were a bit embarrassed to admit they were going to vote Tory

I did, but sadly told everyone bar the bookmaker. Apparently I could've got odds of 10/1.And yes, just as I've never met anyone who voted for dear Margaret I've yet to meet anyone who voted Tory yesterday.The people have spoken (secretly).They have said Carry On Dave - get that welfare state dismantled

NickH wrote:Labour's Peter Kyle victorious in Hove (the only Labour MP south of London?)

Nick, Labour held Southampton Test, and Ben Bradshaw increased Labour's majority in Exeter by 7,000 votes. These were the only other islands of red south of London (and no Lib Dems either south of London now), although westwards Bristol East, West, and South all Labour

Adam Blake wrote:People will be too busy with their "smartphones". Only if the internet goes down will there be any popular uprising.

Adam - have you forgotten 2011? Blackberry messenger service was used to coordinate the looting and rioting. Police couldn't get into the message streams. Twitter is used to show the coordinates of the police in demos. Technology works in more than one way - not just as an opiate of the masses.

Nikki - don't get too down. Our time will come. It'll just take longer, but it will.

Well, the riots came early with a crustie one in Westminster yesterday afternoon - 5 cops hospitalised! Though I'm pretty certain that those who protest so rough are more there for the chaos and chance to bash police than any desire to build a better society. I write this from experience - I used to go on every protest going and quite often there would be a certain group with black hoodies and bricks waiting for their chance.

Gordon, how many votes did your son get? I'm guessing he stood as a joke? You have such a droll wit I'm thinking he stood as a form of comic protest. Did he lose his deposit? UKIP did well in north England but I find it hard to see them winning votes in Scotland when all the nationalists have the SNP to wave the flag over.

5 more years of Cameron then 10 years (at least) of Boris. What future this holds I dread to think.

Garth Cartwright wrote:Gordon, how many votes did your son get? I'm guessing he stood as a joke? You have such a droll wit I'm thinking he stood as a form of comic protest. Did he lose his deposit? UKIP did well in north England but I find it hard to see them winning votes in Scotland when all the nationalists have the SNP to wave the flag over.